I built this shadow box end table for a fellow military member and to be quite honest I have zero clue on how much to charge. I need some feedback and advice on this if any one would care to venture word.

It is approximately 24 inches from front to back, 20 inches from side to side and 27 inches tall. It is made of pine with a lid that opens the shadowbox part and a drawer underneath, Thanks in advance!

Kevin P

-- Kevin P

19 replies so far

Is it, “how much would this be on the market?” or “how much do I charge a friend?” What is the reason to charge more than what you have in it? (you may have very good reasons to do that, but it helps to clarify what you’re asking.)

-- "Man is the only animal which devours his own, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor." ~Thomas Jefferson

Good luck! Here is my criteria: All the traffic will bear in your area. After that is is this a friend? friend of a friend, acquaintance, or just someone whom was referred to you? Again it’s whatever you feel confidence in for your quality of work.

If it is a very good friend or a person I was in a combat situation with, there would be no charge.

The photo is too small to get any details. Maybe host it elsewhere and send a link? From where I sit it looks good, even with a bit of blotch.

Otherwise, for clients I am doing business for only, I charge $35/hr plus costs plus 20% overhead. That means if it is one of my top quality pieces I charge the actual hours I worked on it in the shop. Not thinking about it or designing it or whatever.

Costs are power, tool replacement and depreciation, space, cost of rough lumber, etc.The 20% is fudgeable. If I get 47 phone calls a day, the price goes up. If I get 14 emails longer than one paragraph and wondering how the work is going, the price goes up! If I hear from the customer once a week? the price goes down. If the customer comes over with a case of beer and stays, the price may or may not go up. If the customer brings a case of beer over, leaves and asks no stupid questions, the price goes down drastically.

price = cost of materials + how much profit you can live with. if its a good friend the cost of materials might be all thats needed. if you are looking to sell for a profit figure out how much time you have in it and figure what your time is worth but be realistic

Labor+materials+overhead+taxes are what I’d charge. I’m looking at the $500-$600 range for a project like that. With that price however, comes a level of customer service that most shops don’t offer. Clients get a detailed proposal, stain samples and drawings along with the knowledge that they can call or email me at pretty much anytime 6 days a week with questions.

The result is that we tend to work on larger, higher end projects and not many of the small ones. Plus we get more commercial work than most other shops as that type of client often favors service over cost.

Since most my work is for friends or relatives and I enjoy doing the work and using my tools I rate each item by the square foot. I just measure all my material come up with the square footage the multiply that by 9.34 for pine or 10.50/per square foot for oak. Seems to pay for my material and leaves a little extra for me. I must mention that this is a hobby for me so I don’t really have all the costs of running a full fledged business.